Opinion Editorials, July 2015

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An image showing one of the strikes by Turkish fighter jets on targets in Syria on Friday, July 24, 2015.	Graphic showing the target that three Turkish fighter jets in Syria, July 24, 2015.

Turkey strikes Islamic State, Kurdish militants in drive for 'safe zone'

By Ece Toksabay

Sat Jul 25, 2015 2:01pm EDT

ANKARA, Reuters --

Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq on Saturday, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria.

The strikes followed Turkey's first-ever air attacks on Islamic State in Syria a day earlier and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference the heightened security operations will go on.

"These operations are not 'one-point operations' and will continue as long as there is a threat against Turkey," he said.

Turkey has dramatically cranked up its role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has seized much of Syria's north and east, since a suspected IS suicide bomber killed 32 people this week in a town close to the Syrian border.

It has also pledged to target Kurdish militants, raising concern about the future of the shaky Kurdish peace process. Critics including opposition politicians accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of trying to use the campaign against Islamic State as an excuse to crack down on Kurds.

Turkey was long a reluctant member of the coalition against Islamic State, a stance that annoyed NATO ally Washington, and this weekend's move into the front line appears to be a response to the suicide bombing in the border town of Suruc.

Many of those killed in the Suruc attack were Kurds and it sparked violence in the largely Kurdish southeast by militants who say Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party have covertly supported Islamic State against Syrian Kurds.

Ankara denies the accusation.

On Friday, as its planes bombed Islamic State in Syria for the first time, police rounded up hundreds of suspected Islamist and Kurdish militants in cities and towns across Turkey, with nearly 600 people having been detained as of Saturday.

"It is unacceptable that Erdogan and the AKP government have made a fight against the Kurdish people part of their struggle against Islamic State," the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement.

SAFE ZONES

It is not known whether the deal struck with Washington this week allowing coalition forces to use Turkish bases for bombing raids against Islamic State will entail the creation of a "safe zone" in northern Syria, something Turkey has long sought.

But Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference that "safe zones will be formed naturally" as swathes of northern Syria are cleared of Islamic State militants.

"We have always defended safe zones and no-fly zones in Syria. People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones," he said.

Washington says direct military pressure on Islamic State, not a safe or no-fly zone, is the best way to end the region's fighting and refugee crisis.

The deal to use Turkish airbases will greatly shorten distances to targets and potentially make the aerial campaign President Barack Obama says is intended to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State capabilities more effective.

Saturday's air strikes hit Islamic State positions in Syria and PKK locations in northern Iraq, including warehouses and living quarters, Davutoglu's office said in a statement.

Simultaneously, Turkish land forces fired on Islamic State and the PKK, it said.

The attacks on the outlawed PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against Turkey, could kill off stumbling peace talks between the group and Ankara, which were started in 2012 but have been stalled lately.

"The truce has no meaning anymore after these intense air strikes by the occupant Turkish army," the PKK said in a statement. One militant was killed and three wounded, it said.

Erdogan took a hefty political risk in starting peace talks in 2012 with the Kurds, who represent nearly 20 percent of Turkey's population. They now accuse him of backtracking on promises.

PROTESTS IN PARIS

The military actions drew protests in Turkey, where police in the capital Ankara fired tear gas and water cannon to break up a demonstration of around 1,000 people, and in France, where around 1,500 people marched in support of the Kurds.

"Turkey is playing a double game. It is trying to convince international media that it's hitting Daesh but the reality is that it's bombing Kurds over there in northern Iraq," one of the protesters, Kurdish doctor Saleh Mustapha, said, using another name for Islamic State.

Istanbul authorities said they would not let organizers go ahead with plans for a peace march planned for Sunday, citing concerns about security and dense traffic.

Local media reported attacks on police officers in a Kurdish neighborhood of Istanbul. Such violence has become more common, with other officers killed this week. PKK militants have accused police of working with Islamic State.

(Addditional reporting by Gulsen Solaker and Orhan Coskun and Mert Ozkan in Ankara and Pauline Ades-Mevel in Paris; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Catherine Evans)

Syria's Assad: Army focusing on holding most important areas

BEIRUT | Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:35am EDT

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Tom Perry and Laila Bassam

Reuters --

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (2nd L) attends Eid al-Fitr prayers at al-Hamad mosque in Damascus, Syria, in this handout released by Syria's national news agency SANA on July 17, 2015. Reuters/SANA/Handout via Reuters

BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday the army had been forced to give up areas in order to hold onto more important ones in its fight with insurgents, and the scale of the war meant the military faced a manpower shortage.

In a remarkably frank assessment of the strains afflicting the Syrian military after more than four years of conflict, Assad said the type of war confronting Syria meant the army could not fight everywhere for risk of losing vital ground.

"Sometimes, in some circumstances, we are forced to give up areas to move those forces to the areas that we want to hold onto," Assad said in a televised speech. "We must define the important regions that the armed forces hold onto so it doesn't allow the collapse of the rest of the areas."

Assad has absorbed a series of battlefield defeats since March: He lost most of the northwestern province of Idlib to an insurgent alliance including the al Qaeda-backed Nusra Front, and important areas of the southern region along the border with Jordan to mainstream groups of the "Southern Front".

In addition, ultra-hardline Islamic State insurgents seized the central city of Palmyra from the Syrian military in May.

The Syrian government's territorial control stands at no more than 25 percent of the country, with the rest divided among an array of armed groups including Islamic State, other rebel groups and a well-organized Kurdish militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war. But

the state-held area is home to the majority of the population.

Assad said increased support from states backing the rebels -- including Turkey -- was the reason for recent setbacks that had created "a state of despair" among Syrians. Syria is in a war funded by the richest and most powerful states, he said.

But Assad struck a defiant tone, saying there would be no compromise solutions, and he dismissed the view that Syria was heading toward partition into areas run separately by the Damascus government and armed groups fighting him.

"Everything is available (for the army), but there is a shortfall in human capacity," Assad said. "Despite that, I am not presenting a dark picture."

Military reversals for Assad have ever more reduced his control beyond the main population centers of western Syria that comprise the cities of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and the coastal region forming the heartland of his Alawite sect.

In the assessment of many diplomats and analysts, Assad has been forced to forgo some far-flung parts of the country to focus efforts on protecting more defensible areas in the west.

Some diplomats say that Iran, his main regional ally, has advised him to retrench.

The army still, however, has footholds in the northeast, the east, and the south, in addition to Syria's second city Aleppo.

Assad said the idea behind giving up territory was to allow for later counter-attacks. "From a military point of view, holding to this area, or that patch, would lead to the recovery of the other areas."

CREDITING HEZBOLLAH

The government's military setbacks have triggered renewed pledges of support from Assad's main regional allies, the Shi'ite Islamist government of Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the Syrian army.

Assad said Iran's role was limited to the provision of military experts, while publicly crediting Hezbollah for its "important" and "effective" role for the first time.

Hezbollah is playing a central role in an ongoing offensive to drive insurgents from the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Western officials have said the military pressure on Assad could pave the way to a political deal that would see Assad step down as demanded by the United States and other Western states.

Syria's conflict began as a street uprising against four decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad family.

The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is due to address the Security Council next week on consultations he has held with combatants and other parties involved in the war.

But Assad stuck to the position that any political proposal for resolving the war must be based on "eliminating terrorism" -- a broad-brush reference to rebels arrayed against him.

Assad said there were "positive" changes in Western attitudes toward Syria's conflict - a reference to the U.S.-led air strike campaign against Islamic State. But he faulted the West because, he said, states were still classifying militants fighting him as revolutionaries rather than "terrorists".

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader says Iran will not abandon support after nuclear deal

BEIRUT | By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

Sat Jul 25, 2015 2:13pm EDT

Reuters --

Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gesture as he appears on a screen during a rally to mark ''Quds (Jerusalem) Day'' in Beirut's southern suburbs in this file photo taken on July 10, 2015. Reuters/Aziz Taher

BEIRUT The Lebanese Hezbollah group believes it can still count on Iran's support following Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday.

In his first public remarks since the agreement was reached this month in Vienna, Nasrallah said he was sure Tehran would confound critics who say it would end support to Hezbollah.

"We deal with every trust and complete assurance over this Nasrallah said in ceremony to honor sons and daughters of fallen Hezbollah fighters.

"Iran's relationship with its allies is based on ideological grounds and come before the political interests," Nasrallah said.

U.S. sanctions against three Hezbollah military leaders whom Washington said were involved in operations in Syria would have no impact on the group, Nasrallah said.

"We have no investment accounts..these measures will not change things either way," Nasrallah said.

The three leaders - Mustafa Badr Al Din, Ibrahim Aqil, and Fu'ad Shukr - were named for their role in coordinating or participating in the group's support for Assad's government in Syria's civil war, the U.S Treasury said.

It also included a businessman in Lebanon who was sanctioned for procuring weapons for Hezbollah and shipping them to Syria.

The new sanctions following the nuclear deal and Washington's continued designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group showed that U.S. policies have not changed toward it, he said.

"The United States is the Great Satan before and after the deal," he said.

Nasrallah said the targeting of Lebanese businessmen was meant to undermine Lebanon's economy and said monetary authorities should not cave into U.S. Treasury efforts to blacklist local businessmen.

The Treasury said it had taken action in June against Hezbollah front companies.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have said they are troubled by support from Iran for regional proxy groups such as Hezbollah.

Nasrallah said his group was proud of Tehran's financial backing, which allowed it to stand up to Israel and U.S. policies in the region.

"The support we get from Iran is enough," Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah's support has been crucial to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the four-year-long Syrian conflict.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Iraqi forces clash with Islamic State militants at Anbar university

Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:39am EDT 

BAGHDAD, Reuters --

Iraqi security forces entered the University of Anbar in the western city of Ramadi on Sunday and clashed with Islamic State militants inside the compound, the joint operations command said in a statement.

Capture of the sprawling complex, which a spokesman said had been used as an insurgent command base, could advance government efforts to retake Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest province, after its fall to Islamic State in May.

Security forces and militia groups have launched an offensive in the Sunni heartland, but progress has been incremental.

"We announce to you the entry of the counter-terrorism forces into the University of Anbar. They are now engaging in battles to clean it up from the remains of Daesh and dismantling bombs and clearing roads," the statement broadcast on state television said, using another name for Islamic State.

Security forces advancing toward the nearby district of al-Tamim had encountered Islamic State positions enforced by bombs and razor wires, the statement added.

A spokesman for Iraq's counter-terrorism forces, which were taking a lead role in the battle, told Reuters the troops had managed to recapture most of the university buildings after launching a surprise offensive with support from U.S.-led coalition air strikes.

"The university represents a significant stronghold and a key command base used by top Daesh commanders to orchestrate all battles in other parts of Ramadi," said Sabah al-Noamani.

He said government forces were seeking to separate the university from nearby districts to cut supply routes to retreating militants.

Anbar provincial council member Falih al-Essawi said special forces, army and federal police had managed to enter the university compound in southern Ramadi early on Sunday and were now "in full control" of the complex.

"They seized the opportunity of retreating Daesh fighters to make more advances toward al-Tamim district in southern Ramadi," Essawi told Reuters.

He said no members of the Hashid Shaabi, the Iran-backed Shi'ite paramilitary groups which Washington has refused to coordinate with, had participated in the university operation.

U.S.-led coalition warplanes have been carrying out strikes in Iraq and neighboring Syria since August 2014 in an attempt to roll back Islamic State gains.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Stephen Kalin and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Palestinians, Israeli police clash at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa

Sun Jul 26, 2015 5:02am EDT 

JERUSALEM, Reuters --

Masked rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli police using stun grenades clashed on Sunday at al-Aqsa mosque plaza, on the annual Jewish day of mourning for Jerusalem's two destroyed Biblical temples.

No serious injuries were reported at the site, which lies in the Israeli-occupied walled Old City and is revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount where two temples once stood.

A police spokeswoman said Palestinians had prepared makeshift barricades and used rocks, metal bars and flares to attack police who came to dismantle them.

Violence at the site has flared in the past year as Palestinians have been riled by visits by non-Muslims, including ultranationalist Jews, to the compound.

Police used stun grenades to push protesters back into the mosque and stepped inside its entrance way to close its main doors, which the spokeswoman said had been jammed open by rock-throwers.

Israeli police, following long-standing procedures, do not venture further into the mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, and violence usually subsides quickly, as it did on Sunday, after Palestinian demonstrators take refuge inside.

Jewish ultranationalists have been pushing the Israeli government to allow Jewish prayer on the compound outside al-Aqsa, which stands above the Western Wall.

Such worship, certain to stir Muslim anger, has been banned on the plaza by Israel since it captured East Jerusalem, and its Old City, in the 1967 Middle East war.

After Sunday's violence ended, a right-wing Israeli cabinet minister visited the compound to mark Tisha B'Av, when Jews lament the temples' destruction.

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its indivisible and eternal capital, a claim not recognized internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, as the capital of a state they aspire to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

(Writing by Ori Lewis and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Israel gives Jordan helicopters for border security - U.S. source

Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:55am EDT 

Israel has given retired U.S.-supplied Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan to help the Hashemite kingdom fend off insurgent threats on the Syrian and Iraqi borders, a U.S. official with knowledge of the deal said.

The handover, initiated last year, was approved by Washington, which provided mechanical overhauls for the aircraft before they were incorporated free of charge in Jordan's existing Cobra fleet, the official said.

"These choppers are for border security," the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters.

Asked how many Cobras were transferred, the official said: "Around 16, though some may have been used by the Jordanians for spare parts" rather than kept intact.

Jordanian and Israeli officials declined comment, as did the Pentagon.

Israel and Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, this week hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who offered reassurances about the regional fight against Islamic State and the July 14 international deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme.

Israel originally had two Cobra squadrons - each consisting of around 30 of the aircraft, which are designed to back ground troops with aerial surveillance as well as machine gun and rocket fire, and to be nimble enough to elude surface-to-air missiles.

One of the squadrons was disbanded in the mid-2000s and the other in 2013, with Israel's air force preferring the more powerful, U.S.-supplied Apache helicopters also in its fleet and an expanded role for its thrifty and versatile pilotless drones.

The Jordanian air force has 25 Cobras in service, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Cobra's manufacturer is Bell Helicopter, a Textron company.

Following Egypt, Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994. But the countries had maintained discreet security ties dating back to the early 1970s and Israel has pledged to step in should Amman be threatened by Islamic State or other insurgents rampaging elsewhere in the Middle East.

 Egypt extends state of emergency in North Sinai by three months

Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:40pm EDT

Egypt said on Saturday it had extended by three months a state of emergency imposed on parts of Northern Sinai in October after Islamist militants stepped up attacks in the peninsula bordering Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Insurgents have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen in Sinai since mid-2013, lashing out after then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi following mass protests against his rule.

Sisi went on to be elected president last year and says militancy poses an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab country.

The decision, announced by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab in a written decree on Saturday, will be implemented in Rafah, al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and surrounding areas starting on Sunday. It also extends a night-time curfew in place in the same areas.

The measure was first introduced after 33 security personnel were killed in an attack in late October at a checkpoint in northern Sinai. It was extended three months in January and again in April.

The attack was claimed by Sinai Province, an affiliate of Islamic State, which earlier changed its name from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. The group, which aims to topple the government in Cairo, has mainly focused on targets in Sinai.

The group last week claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed four soldiers near the border town of Rafah and rocket attack on an Egyptian naval vessel near the coast of Israel and Gaza, less than a week after claiming a bombing in Cairo that heavily damaged the Italian consulate.

Sinai Province earlier this month assaulted several military checkpoints in North Sinai, in what was the fiercest fighting in the region in years.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk and Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein)

Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:03am EDT Related: World, Yemen

Expulsion from Derna bastion may show limits for Islamic State in Libya

By Ulf Laessing and Ayman al-Warfalli

CAIRO/BENGHAZI, Libya, July 24 (Reuters) -

Islamic State jihadists have exploited widespread chaos to gain a foothold in Libya, but their ejection from an eastern city suggests they may not achieve a Iraq-style takeover due to strong local rivals and the absence of sectarian divisions.

Last month, local Islamist fighters reinforced by local civilians ousted Islamic State militants from Derna on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, one of two bastions the jihadists had established in the North African oil-producing country.

It was the first setback in Libya for the ultra-violent jihadist movement that has sent in combatants and clerics from Tunisia, Yemen and other Arab states to try repeat its success in Iraq and Syria, where it has captured vast territories and proclaimed a "caliphate" based on medieval religious precepts.

Islamic State (IS) has benefited from Libya's anarchy. Two rival governments are fighting each other and unable to gain the upper hand while former rebel groups that helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 compete for power, creating a security vacuum.

But IS was driven out of Derna after seven people were killed at a protest against the influx of foreign jihadists and the killing of a commander of the local Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, allied with a former anti-Gaddafi militia in the town.

A number of angry residents joined the Abu Salim Martyrs to help them expel IS from Derna, an Islamist hotspot even during Gaddafi's 42-year rule in which he suppressed political Islam.

The Sunni Islamic State has drawn considerable grassroots support in Iraq and Syria by milking longstanding Sunni-Shi'ite Muslim sectarian enmities. But this does not work in Libya, an exclusively Sunni country where local Sunni armed factions and tribes regard Islamic State as an infiltrator and competitor.

"People had had enough of Daesh," said a Derna resident, using a derogatory Arabic acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL. "The Abu Salim Brigade has enjoyed some support going back to the (anti-Gaddafi) revolution."

Mattia Toaldo, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Islamic State would now probably focus on its other Libya power base -- Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown on the country's central coast where IS has won unusual support from Gaddafi loyalists opposed to Libya's jostling new rulers.

IS insurgents have attacked oil fields south of the central city and kidnapped some nine foreign workers. They also executed 21 Egyptian Christians near Sirte and stormed a luxury hotel in the capital Tripoli, killing five foreigners.

Toaldo said he expected the jihadists would try to set up checkpoints at a strategic central junction where the east-west coastal highway links with a passage to Sabha, a city in Libya's far southern desert. "They would be able to ask for a lot of protection money (there)," he said.

Unlike in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has been unable to earn millions by selling oil on the black market because it is dominated by Libyans. IS therefore relies on ransoms paid for abducted prisoners and on state salaries paid to local members in Libya, where most adults remain on the state payroll.

DERNA BATTLE NOT OVER

Islamic State might also try tap into grievances in the impoverished south. Neither rival government has any authority in the remote, desolate area where dozens have been killed since last week in clashes between two tribes, the Tuareg and Tebu.

"Islamic State-linked militants may seek to take advantage of feelings of marginalisation in the southwest, particularly among members of the Tuareg ethnic group, to recruit fighters and hold territory," said Geoffrey Howard, Middle East and North Africa analyst at London-based Global Risk Analysis.

As for Derna, Islamic State has confirmed in a video that it has pulled out its fighters. But the fighting is not over yet.

Military units loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government based in the east since losing control of Tripoli a year ago to a rival group said they had now surrounded Derna.

"Islamic State aren't many and they don't have petrol to move around," said Abdul Karim Sabra, a local military spokesman. "They don't have military vehicles either. They get around in fertilizer trucks."

But clashes between Islamic state and eastern army units aligned with the internationally recognised government outside Derna, and several car bombs going off inside the city, killing 10 people and blamed by residents on Islamic State, suggest the military encirclement has not been effective.

Islamic State can always seek refuge in the Green Mountain hinterland -- a hideout for independence hero Omar al-Mukhtar for years when fighting the then-Italian colonial regime.

Since the eastern army units and the Abu Salim fighters treat each other as enemies, and as long as these regional military forces do not try to venture into Derna, it may well remain a playground for radical Islamists.

"It's a crowded field," said Frederic Wehrey, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Everything in Libya is fragmented, everything is localised, so it's difficult for any group to expand."

It also remains to be seen whether life will improve for people in Derna. "Shops and banks have reopened (since IS pulled out) but there is lack of medicine in hospitals," said the local resident, who asked not to be named for his own safety. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Houthis, Saudi-led forces battle for Yemen's biggest air base

By Mohammed Mukhashef and Mohammed Ghobari

ADEN/SANAA, Reuters --

Yemeni forces allied with a Saudi-led coalition fought Houthi militia for control of the country's largest air base north of Aden on Sunday, local residents said, hours before a humanitarian truce declared by the coalition was meant to start.

The al-Anad base, 50 km (30 miles) from the major southern port city, has been held by the Iranian-allied Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war, and is regarded as a strategic asset commanding the approaches to Aden.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

But the truce was cast into doubt when Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi was reported to have rejected it, arguing it would benefit only militant groups Islamic State and al Qaeda.

"The battle goes on and the war is not over," al-Houthi was quoted as saying in a message posted on the group's Twitter account. The Iranian-allied Houthi movement accuses its Saudi-supported foes of being in cahoots with Islamist militants like al Qaeda, something the coalition denies.

A spokesperson for the Houthis was not immediately available for comment on the posting.

Houthi forces held up 16 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the World Food Programme through Yemen's Al Hudaydah province to support displaced persons in the major city of Taiz.

Four months of air raids and war have killed more than 3,500 people in the Arabian Peninsula state. Aden has suffered especially, with severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

The Arab coalition, allied with southern secessionist fighters, retook much of Aden last week in the first significant ground victory in their campaign to end Houthi control over much of Yemen and restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Houthi fighters and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh captured Aden at the outset of the war, prompting Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia, an ally along with the United States.

Aden and other southern provinces have been largely inaccessible to U.N. food aid, and about 13 million people -- over half the population -- are thought in dire need of food.

WARPLANES ATTACK

Coalition warplanes carried out raids near Sanaa late on Saturday and shortly after dawn on Sunday, residents reported, adding that the targets included a military base near the city.

In the city itself, a bomb exploded underneath a passenger bus, killing three people and wounding five in the southern district of Dar Selm, police said. No further details were immediately available.

Ali Ahmedi, a spokesman for anti-Houthi forces in Aden, said they continued to fight Houthi forces at the al-Anad base and had damaged aircraft, tanks and equipment stationed there.

Residents said forces of the so-called Southern Resistance, a secessionist movement allied with the coalition, had taken and Sabr, a northern district of Aden. The residents reported 25 Houthis and 10 Southern Resistance fighters had been killed.

The Saudi-led coalition began its campaign on March 26, striving to reverse months of advances by the Houthis after they moved from their northern stronghold last year, capturing the capital Sanaa and pushing south to Aden.

A senior Houthi commander, Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi, was captured on Saturday by the Southern Resistance, the secessionist movement said on its official Twitter account.

Houthi officials could not immediately be contacted for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the information.

Yemenis say Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi, a brother of Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, played an important role in the militia's capture of Sanaa in September.

(Writing by Hadeel El Sayegh and William Maclean; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Summary of events of the Iraqi popular revolution Bulletin no. 620

Wednesday 22nd , July  , 2015

Iraqi Spring MC

Bulletin no. 620

Wednesday   22nd, July,   2015 

Baghdad:

A person was killed and 5 wounded as a roadside bomb exploded near garage in Mashtal area in east of Baghdad.................................... 12 persons- most of them are government's forces -were either killed or wounded as a car bomb exploded at shared checkpoint of army and police in Tarmiya district in north of Baghdad ………. A person was killed and 7 wounded as a roadside bomb exploded near shops in Ghazaliya in west of Baghdad today evening.......................... 27 persons were either killed or wounded as a car bomb exploded near shops in Baghdad Al-Jadeeda area …… 5 policemen were either killed or wounded as a roadside bomb exploded targeting their patrol in Yusfiya nahiya in south of Baghdad........................ 8 persons were either killed or wounded as a roadside bomb exploded in Abu Greib district in west of Baghdad......... 

Anbar :

32 elements of the government's army and Hashd militias have been either killed or wounded and their vehicles destroyed in Hamudhiya and Albu Etha area in north of Ramadi...... The militias which are so-called Hezbollah have arrested 20 young men in Razzaza area in Habaniya in east of Ramadi and killed "Omar Aziz" because of his name then taken  the arrested ones to unknown place ....... ISIL has targeted a group of Hashd Al-Sha'abi militia by mortars near Mazra'a area resulted in billowing of smoke out of the place of mortars falling  .... 1200 elements of Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi have been killed and 1800 wounded since the starting of Fallujah military operations and more than 200 elements missed according to Emirate Bayan newspaper........ 22 elements of the government's army and Hashd militias were killed and 7 wounded and their vehicles destroyed as ISIL attacked them in northern east of Fallujah. 

Fallujah:

 A hummer owned by the government's army was damaged as a roadside bomb exploded in the battles in north of Fallujah...................... The international -government's air force shelled Ali Bin Abi Talib masjid and the civilian homes in Fallujah resulted in killing and wounding of persons...........      

The signs of shelling of the government's forces and Hashd militias which have targeted Fallujah   are shown in this video.

https://youtu.be/LjdbhqzEtkE 

Salah-il-deen:

A barracks for the government's army has been attacked by light and medium weapons in south of Beiji and the elements in barracks  either killed or wounded ............. 8 elements of the government's army including an officer were killed as a booby-trapped home exploded near Mikeshefa nahiya in south of Salah-il-deen........... Kareem Al-Sue'idi , one of leaders of Karbala regiment of Badr militia ,has been killed in the ongoing battles in Fataha area in north of Salah-il-deen.......... Hasan Al-Karbala'i -the chairman of Doctrinal Guidance Directorate of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi-,Mohamad Naji- an administrative worker-,and Mustafa Al-Kinani -war photographer-have been killed in Beiji battles........ 

Diyala:

An explosive belt has exploded in Jisr area in Mandili in Diyala resulted in killing and wounding of dozens of persons  ....................... 5 persons were killed and 18 wounded as a car bomb exploded at Nida -Takhmaya intersection   in west of Mandili today evening....................... 

Miscelloneous:

An American reconnaissance aircraft has been shot down in Simawa desert ,further details unknown……. The security forces in Kirkuk have stormed Urooba , Wasit ,Shuhada'a ,Wihda and Askari neighbourhoods .................. The persons who are ruling Iraq at the present time have been brought  to power by U.S. invasion, Ayad Jamalideen says..........

https://youtu.be/fsOORGVlWKo

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